Call of the Open Road MOTORS AND MOTORING

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 40, 21 May 1935, Page 2

Call of the Open Road MOTORS AND MOTORING

Conducted by "SAVITAR."

The first sections of the new German motor roads will shortly be opened between Frankfort and Darmstadt and between Munich and Holzkirchen.

There is a noticeable move toward reducing the number of tyre sizes, practically all the 1935 American cars having 16in. rims, with a variety of sections to suit individual loads. Wheels are being carefully balanced. Equal axle loads front and rear are now common, and the front springs are made almost as soft as the rear springs.

It is sometimes difficult to find the drilled hole in a bolt to which a castellated nut and split-pin are to be fitted after the nut has been placed in position. The trouble is to bring a pair of nut castellations into line with the hole. Time is saved in such cases if, as a preliminary, a groove is made with a file across the end of the" bolt exactly parallel with the split-pin hole, so as to indicate the line of the hole.

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If it is necessary to use a light when examining the level of the liquid in the cells of the battery, use an electric torch, never a lighted match or other naked flame. The gases given off by the battery during the process of charging are highly inflammable. Even with the engine stopped, there is no guarantee that the gases are not present in the cells, making the battery a potential bomb if a naked flame is brought near after the filler plugs have been unscrewed. Instances are recorded of serious injury to face and eyes through using a lighted match for inspection purposes. In at least one case the battery box was blown to pieces by the force of the explosion.

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Countersunk screws on any part of the car, no matter how firmly they might be screwed home, are prone to loosen because of vibration. An easy way of preventing that is, after the screw has been tightened as much as possible, to make a punch mark on the surrounding metal at each end of the screw slot. This slight burring will suffice to prevent the screw loosening in its thread, but if not overdone, will not interfere with easy removal, as a steady twist with the screwdriver will cause the sfcrew Ho shear through the ■ thin projecting metal.

Every wise motorist carries with his tools a length of rubber tubing of a size which will just slide over the type of petrol pipe used on his car, so that he can easily effect a temporary repair should the pipe break during a journey. In an emergency a short length of the tubing can be slid over the broken ends of the pipe, and should then be tightly bound with wire or string at each end. If the pipe is only cracked, through crystallisation of the metal or constant vibration, a little soap can be smeared over the crack, which should then be bound with cloth or insulating tape. These repairs are, of course, only temporary, and the piping should be replaced or properly repaired as soon as the opportunity occurs.

Occasionally motorists might find themselves stranded by the roadside because of a cracked ignition distributor cap in which the insulation has consequently become defective and upsets the delivery of the spark to each cylinder in due turn. In such circumstances a makeshift repair vouched for by an overseas motorist is worth remembering. His dodge was to clean out the cracks in the distributor cap as thoroughly as possible with a pin, and then to knead ordinary household soap into them. He reports that thereafter the engine started easily and ran well, and that in order to test the efficacy of this treatment, he did not at the first opportunity secure a new cap, but ran the car with the old one for a month, and when it was discarded the engine was still running quite satisfactorily. * * * *

It is very important to keep the top of a battery dry, as the presence of moisture, especially if it contains any acid, will quickly cause corrosion at the terminals, and if not attended to may even cause a short circuit between the cells. The stoppers of the filling holes should always be screwed down firmly on their rubber gaskets and the terminals themselves should be coated with petroleum jelly or with anti-corrosive

grease. The actual terminal lugs and busbars will not corrode, as ,they are made of lead, but the connectors and their clamp*bolts, except in a few special types of battery, are attacked by acid. An effective and safe way of removing any corrosion which may form is to soak the parts in 1 a strong alkaline solution made by dissolving washingrsoda in warm water.